Cookbook:Pizza Sauce

It's hard to believe that pizza originally did not contain tomatoes! Tomatoes originated from the Americas, and didn't reach Italy until the mid-1500s. They didn't get popular until the late 1800s though, because people thought they were poisonous. Now, however, tomato sauce is considered an essential part of most types of pizza. Want to make it at home? Here's the way to get that great "pizzeria" taste in your sauce, with all the "what"s and "how"s.

After rolling out dough, ladle on sauce as directed by the pizza recipe, then grab a handful of sugar and drizzle it on, until the surface of the sauce becomes white - however, it should remain possible to see the crystals dissolving.

The sugar covers the taste of the acidity and vegetal character of the sauce. Sugar is the secret to a pizza that tastes like one from many American fast-food franchise pizza outlets like Domino's and Pizza Hut.

A common modification is to drizzle high-quality extra virgin olive oil onto sauce on pizza, or to pre-brush the dough with oil before adding the sauce.